One done, two underway and two to go.
Several years ago, the City of New Westminster identified its priorities for "development assistance compensation" - funding negotiated when the destination casino was approved in the city. The city first negotiated agreements for the destination casino in 1999, when Royal City Star riverboat casino opened in New Westminster.
"The province said to the city back in 2006 that they wanted some changes to the destination casino," said Lisa Spitale, the city's director of development services. "For that reason, we were allowed to open up the agreements."
The development assistance compensation agreements were signed by the city, the provincial government, the B.C. Lottery Corporation and the casino operator. They identified five priorities and provided funding for each of those projects.
The first priority was $5 million for parkland improvements in Queensborough, followed by $35 million for a multi-use downtown civic facility. Priority 3 was $6.2 million for expansion of facility at Queensborough Community Centre, while Priority 4 was $10 million for a Queensborough/waterfront pedestrian bridge. Rounding out the top 5 priorities was $4 million for riverfront dock and facility improvements.
"We finished that," Spitale said of Priority 1. "That is done."
Priority 1 included parkland improvements in Queensborough including trail and greenways along South Dyke Road, the Sukh Sagar Park at Wood Street and Derwent Avenue, the Queensborough neighbourhood park at Derwent Way and Ewen Avenue and the Boro All Wheel Park next to the community centre.
"One hundred per cent of those projects were funded through (development assistance compensation)," said Dean Gibson, the city's director of parks, culture and recreation. "We got huge value. We got two parks, an all-wheel park and three trails with piers out into the river."
Gibson said staff were going like gangbusters to get the projects done by the Dec. 31, 2010 deadline. He said a grand opening was delayed until July 9, as summer is the best time to have these types of events.
City staff, architects and various committees have also been working on plans for the multi-use civic centre, which must be completed by 2013.
"We are on track," Spitale said. "One of our milestones has always been excavating during this time period. The rest is a straightforward construction project."
The City of New Westminster recently held a groundbreaking for the 13,180square-foot expansion to Queensborough Community Centre. Work is getting underway and aiming to be completed by the fall of 2012.
Spitale said little work has been done on Priority 4 and 5 because city staff has been focusing their attention on other projects.
"We have been focusing on DAC Priority 2, which is the lion's share of the funding," she said about the civic centre.
"Once the construction is going in an orderly fashion, we will shift over to those."
The pedestrian bridge between Queensborough and the waterfront has a timeline of 2013 to 2015.
"My position has always been when we are a bit closer to it, we can do some more work," Spitale said. "We have a budget. The question is, what can we do with it?"
If the $10 million isn't sufficient to do that project, Spitale said the city may have to look at ways of augmenting that funding.
While the civic centre project has been a "really technical" undertaking, Spitale said the pedestrian bridge and the dock improvements would be highly regulated by groups like Transportation Canada, Fraser River Estuary Management Program and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
According to Spitale, the pedestrian bridge would have to look at a number of issues, such as where it lands on each end, view corridors, height and its relationship to the existing rail bridge. She noted that certain height clearances are required on navigable waterways.
"We have to put all of that together and start working on that," she said. "We will start focusing on that once the civic centre is underway."
Spitale estimates that work on Priority 4 and 5 would begin in the middle of 2012.
While there has been community interest in enhancing the connections between downtown New Westminster and Queensborough, Spitale said some computer generated images of a pedestrian bridge between the mainland and Queensborough caused some concern in the community. She said the images were done to "test options for funding" but weren't meant to reflect how the crossing would actually appear.
"We haven't done that yet," she said about designs. "I think they were concerned from the images they saw."
Spitale said the connections would have to be done in a way that's responsive to the environment and view corridors. She noted that some of the work that will be done with the riverfront dock facility improvements would be tied in to some of the work that the city is doing with Westminster Pier Park and the waterfront esplanade.
Spitale said the city has always supported completing the projects by the deadlines set in the DAC agreements
"We have always taken the position we can't get an extension," she said. "We have always said there is value to keep working on these timelines and keeping the momentum going."
Spitale noted that $35 million now isn't $35 million in 10 years, so it's to the city's benefit to get the projects done sooner rather than later.
At various times since the agreements were negotiated, people have suggested that the funding should be used on other projects than those originally identified.
Because the province wanted to change the original agreements, Spitale said the city was able to renegotiate funding priorities. But she said the province made it clear that it wouldn't be supportive of opening up discussions about those priorities again.
Spitale, who helped negotiate the 1999 and 2008 agreements, believes the funding provides a tremendous opportunity for a small city to undertake projects it may not normally have funds to build.
"At the end of the day what has always been great about the DAC program is they are community programs," she said. "They were put together as legacy projects that the province allowed us to do."
